PV mini-grids provide electricity to 300 villages in Senegal

Senegal wants to give its population permanent access to electricity by 2025. However, half of the country’s approximately 17 million residents live in rural areas, sometimes a long way from the national utility grid. The government is therefore looking to decentralized and environmentally friendly energy solutions. The government’s ASER300 project is bringing electricity to 300 villages all around the country with mini-grids, which include PV modules, inverters, batteries, and cooling systems.

Erik Klüglingby Erik Klügling (guest post), , 4 Comments

Raising the profile of fathers in companies

No longer is finding the right balance between family and work to be an issue for women alone, because many men today are also seeking this balance. They want to contribute more, take responsibility as fathers and ensure that parental duties are distributed more fairly. So it’s all the more important that companies pay heed to these wishes.

Jason talks about his new leadership role at SMA UK & Ireland

A warm SMA welcome to Jason Devonshire-Mander, who joined us as Head of Sales and Service for the UK and Ireland in December. Jason brings with him a wealth of experience, having worked within the energy storage industry on and off for almost three decades and has developed a track record of achieving revenue and business growth in competitive markets.

Kate Scorerby Kate Scorer (guest post), , 0 Comments

Agrivoltaics: Blue-green model for the future

Agrivoltaics is a blue-green glimmer of hope in an era of climate change. It refers to the simultaneous use of an area for agricultural production and the generation of electricity from photovoltaics. Until now, agricultural land and ground-based PV systems have mostly existed separately. Anyone who purposefully combines the two forms of land use can benefit from positive effects.

Birgit Scheuch by Birgit Scheuch (guest post), , 2 Comments

New training concept for central inverter maintenance

It's all in the mix: In the new "blended learning" format, the SMA Solar Academy is now combining digital and analog maintenance training for the Sunny Central and Sunny Central Storage central inverters. There are only two days of classroom training at the Solar Academy. Prior to that, the theory will be provided on four half days as remote training. "This is more flexible, fits better into everyday work and family life, and the participants save on accommodation costs," says Academy trainer Jan Rössler.

Women at SMA: meet Danielle

Danielle talks about starting her career in the solar industry

One of the fastest growing job markets, working in the renewables industry is good for you and the planet. Increasingly, people are turning to a career in solar energy at various stages of their professional lives. But is everyone suited to solar? We speak to Danielle Budd, SMA UK’s Logistics Coordinator. Danielle joined SMA at the beginning of her career in solar energy – now after three years with SMA, find out how she finds working in the renewables sector and what she’s learning from the team.

Kate Scorerby Kate Scorer (guest post), , 2 Comments

Safety of PV systems: Your questions, our answers

The safety of a PV system depends, among other things, on the design of the overall system. Modern string inverters with integrated features enable a slim system design. This avoids potential sources of error, for example through additional cabling effort when installing module electronics. In a webinar "Analyzing PV system safety and the promise of optimizers" in June 2022, Dr. Heribert Schmidt from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE and SMA expert Hannes Knopf discussed the influence of different system designs on the safety of PV systems. Afterwards we received so many exciting questions on the topic, which we would like to share with you. Our colleague Hannes Knopf answered the most frequently asked questions here.